Sep 2022
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Sep 2022
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GumshoeComix
Sep '22

I'm gonna leave out a lot cause it involves a lot of other people's personal details and that's not cool

but my current story isn't my first story so I'm not sure if I should start there
or if I should start with my older stories. they were made around the same time-ish anyway

I had to drop out of high school in 2010 because I was having seizures from stress. one of my teachers was stalking me and I lost a lot of friends to this. Art was all I really had at this point. in my mind art was the only thing that wouldn't leave me, so I had to draw every day.
I was going through depression and suicidal ideation but I wasn't aware of it so I buried it deep inside.
I created my first webcomic which did decently on DA but I had no idea about writing so it went on permanent hiatus while I practiced writing. which is where my current story came from. My current story scared me when I first wrote it, the fact that it could come out of my imagination, made me anxious to write so I put it on hold "till I was an adult" I don't think I knew back then that I was just venting.
in 2012 I ended up moving and losing contact with what few friends I had left. (and I hadn't realized my old friends were horrible people) I'd see them a few times a year if anything at this point I mostly just talked to people online. Shorty after my 18th birthday I got asked out by ""someone"" who was a functioning alcoholic and I said yes cause everyone told me to.
I spent a lot of time holed up in my room just trying to pass the time watching TV

2013 is when I met my current boyfriend (LDR) who encouraged me to keep working on my stories, cause until that point I had just been sketching concepts but not really working on them anymore.

My turtle passed away, she was always very sickly but I had her since I was 9 so she was supposed to live longer than I was

And I'm gonna be honest I don't remember much of this year

2014
my dog passed away, and just a few months later my mom decided the best way to cope would be to get a new one, also to get birds and snakes that she's not going to take care of but that I have to take care of. My suicidal ideations became LOUDER, I would occasionally go for walks outside in the middle of the night just to see if my family noticed or cared and they didn't, I'd be gone for hours by the ocean, every time just wondering why I didn't have the guts to drown myself.

that was also the year of the last convention I went to. I got harassed by a drunk homeless man grabbing my hair and telling me I look pretty (in front of a lot of people) and everyone forgot it was my birthday despite knowing me for like a decade. then they act like it's my fault??? That's when I decided to stop talking to them to this day the only person I talk to now is my sister, and even that's hard.

2015
this year nearly every day was just a constant mental breakdown, i'd be crying all the time I eventually had one so big that happened to be on easter that my mom signed me up for a therapist but I was on a waitlist for a year. :+1:

My dad started sending his stalker letters in the mail again and he found me and my sisters social media so we had to delete them

2016
I overdosed on benzodiazepines- not on purpose but for those that don't know if you take them a lot your body gets used to them and they don't work so you want more. and I had been taking them since I was 11 without a prescription.

We moved again, we were supposed to buy a really big house for the whole family but my uncle stole all the money from my grandfather's will so we ended up getting an apartment that was in a shit neighborhood with black mold and leaky pipes

2017
Finally got a therapist, after a few months there I told her about the suicidal ideations and I opted to go to the hospital, by choice.
I moved in with my grandmother a day afterward while the day I came back from the hospital my mom was packing to move to Florida and she ended up selling our dog to her friend.
living with her was only slightly easier cause I knew I wasn't gonna be homeless and I wasn't gonna starve where mom would steal my money and forget to feed me.

I saved up some money so I could go to California and visit my boyfriend and that would be the thing from 2017- 2019 when I would go there and come back and eventually around new years 2020 after he moved to AZ I moved in with his family and we found a place together. And while I'm still in therapy and the suicidal thoughts come back every now and then I'm doing loads better. And honestly writing all this down I'm kinda proud I got this far.
when you only see yourself in the present, it's hard to see just how much progress you've made.

thespiritinme
Sep '22
NickRowler

That's incredible my friend! It reminds me of the time I opened my first comic and look at it before I turned it into a novel and although it looked very childish, the story was funny and it cracked me! Thanks for reminding me that. I'll check what you've posted so far, good luck with whatever you will do :slight_smile:

thespiritinme
Sep '22
NickRowler

I checked your first pages and it is soooo funny hahaha and when you said naruto parody I understood now that he resemble Kakashi appearance. Well done!!!

thespiritinme
Sep '22
GumshoeComix

Definitely! Only when you see yourself in the present you see how much progress you've made. Such a good sentence. I'm glad to hear you are doing better, and I wish you to only raise up. You had a difficult life story, sounds like most of it wasn't your fault but you got out of it. Be proud. Thanks for sharing!

N1ghtm4r3
Sep '22

well i started the story maybe 15 years ago as just something cool inspired at the time from world events and characters i made up as conglomerations of parts from more well know charcters, at the time gundam wing was on so there was that to,alot has happened in the last 7 years tough as my grandpa passed and lilttle mroe then 2 years ago my mom passed away as well as two pet dogs that same year , those are just the 2 bggets moments there wre some good and bad intersperced in that 7 year run but not worth anythign really

thespiritinme
Sep '22

Wow, 15 years is a long time. Good job for sticking that long and hope better times come and you are happy :slight_smile:

XiuLyn_12
Sep '22

What I had to go through is probably less deep than everyone else.
But when I was very young and starting comics, I used to be afraid of drawing extreme body poses, angles, and backgrounds. I happen to be very unmotivated if I have to draw them.
I know they're essential in making comics, so I have to suck it up and do it, although I have never liked the result. I asked my sisters to help me sometimes, but they also had things to do, so I couldn't ask them to help me all the time.
I slowly learn about the alternatives to doing the things I hate, and I find out I don't have to come up with poses and angles with my brain. I learned about references and apps to help me create those. Now i'm still struggling a bit, but to produce good content, I got to keep going and improve myself! :smile:

thespiritinme
Sep '22

As a starting comic artist those was my struggles as well! I would be amazed by some backgrounds I've seen like, it would take me literally a month to draw that. And that's one panel! Until I discovered they used photo editing and that's why it's so detailed haha there are many shortcuts to make the process shorter but it's still takes a lot of time to bring out the best quality as a one man production so I'll have to wait for a bigger team, I haven't gave up on that dream yet :slight_smile: Good luck with your work!

Lensing
Sep '22
XiuLyn_12

I can relate to this a lot.

The question is if we really should push us to do things that we hate or that are boring for us instead of
putting all the energy into things we love and enjoy while doing.
Imagine you would only draw the things that you love drawing and do all the rest in a very minimal way.
I´m also not good at that, I always try to push myself through the hard stuff so I can finally draw something
that´s fun, but then I´m exhausted and maybe don´t want to draw the fun stuff anymore.

When I´m really desparate and exhausted I look at Charles Schultz cartoons and think life could be so
easy for me. I´ll upload 2 examples. One is the normal Charles Schultz background and the second
one is the one where he put more background. We are both able to do this :smiley:

47a2985a980487abf122052ea4e44885.jpg1256x1244 205 KB

XiuLyn_12
Sep '22
thespiritinme

Yes, I noticed some artists (mostly webtoon artists) use photo editing for their backgrounds!
I don't think it's wrong to do so. It's for the sake of efficiency, I suppose.
But it kinda beats my effort to make decent-looking backgrounds. At this point, I might use their methods, haha. :smile:

XiuLyn_12
Sep '22
Lensing

Oh, I've never seen this comic before! And I agree that minimal-looking backgrounds can be enough. :grinning:
Thank you for sharing~

Lensing
Sep '22

It´s maybe because it´s old, he died 22 years ago.
But he is the most successful newspaper comic artist of all time, ten thousands of comic strips,
50 animated movies, he drew more strips than I can read in my life :smiley:
I always take his comics as an example because it shows how you can focus on good characters
and short storytelling in an efficient way without worrying about perspective, anatomy and backgrounds.
It always depends on the creator and the comic genre of course but I think it´s important to focus on
things you love and which are important for you

Lensing
Sep '22

I don´t feel like I had to go through anything to make my stories.
My stories are influenced by things that I always loved or can´t stop thinking about and
that is the 1930-1950s era, humour, office jobs, human relationships, bizarre characters, erotic

I had to go through some things to write my autobiographic stuff, I´m writing stories about the life
of a touring musician. Not sure what I will publish, I probably have to talk to a lawyer before publishing
the stories

RobertBMarks
Sep '22

My novel is my statement on my media landscape, and it is the sum total of:

  • Being an fantasy and SF fan in the 1990s.

  • Attending SF conventions as an author in the aughts and meeting other authors (including Sir Terry Pratchett).

  • Being a pop culture commentator on and off from 2000-2019.

  • Doing a graduate degree in military history from 2008-2011, meeting a bunch of combat officers who served in Afghanistan (and when Americans were visiting, Iraq) in the process.

  • Getting properly into anime in 2020.

  • Having Re:Creators (Rei Hiroe's statement on his media landscape) implant itself in my head and not leave.

And that is how you get Re:Apotheosis and its characters - I don't think the novel would exist if any of these elements were missing.

powerplantanimations
Sep '22

Had to go through a rare autoimmune sickness which caused me to stay quarantined BEFORE the quarantine. Decided to brush off my writing skills. I tried to push for this other webcomic, but I soon realized no one would read it since it was sci-fi. I made connections with people on Discord. Met skilled artists and animators in the industry. Continued to push for the sci-fi story, until I came up with a stick figure isekai idea. I pitched the idea and then I got my artist's attention. There's a TON of other stuff I had to go through, but eventually that time I was quarantined helped me be super resourceful and smart with my time.

I thank the experience since it gave me a "work smarter not harder" mentality.

That Stick Figure Isekai is also a backdoor pilot for my sci-fi story. I wanna make peopel hyped for it.

thespiritinme
Sep '22
Lensing

That's so true! It's also true for my novel, and I believe for every story. If the characters are interesting enough, and the plot is interesting enough, all the rest is just an extra. Charles Schultz really knew what to focus on and what not, to be efficient with time and as evidence, it really worked for him. I want to make my story a comic but I don't have enough time to do it the way I want to as one man, so once I get recognition I'll hire a team and be the director of it :smiley:

thespiritinme
Sep '22
Lensing

To me it sounds that you are going through your passions in order to create your stories, which is lovely :slight_smile: